Storm breaks over Iraq's cellular network

A REPORT in the Saudi Gazette highlights the current confusion surrounding the award of three mobile phone network licenses in Iraq.

The original date for the announcement was September 5th and that deadline subsequently slipped to September 12th.

But despite constant monitoring of the Coalition Provisional Authority's (CPA's Web site), there's still been no announcement. Reuters has even quoted quoted John Shaw, deputy under-secretary for international security with the USA Department of Defence as saying that an announcement would be made two days ago.

The Saudi Gazette has put forward a number of reasons for the delay.

One is that Haydar A'abadi who assumed the post of Minister of Telecommunications with the temporary Iraqi administration is deeply unhappy at the conditions offered - not the least of which is that the licenses are being sold too cheaply and another is that the state owned telecommunications network should be allowed to provide the backbone connexions for such networks.

There is also deep suspicion, following the intervention of Congressman Darrel Issa, that ways to enable a cdmaOne based network to win a license are being actively sought.

The requirement that subscribers should be able to easily roam between all three regional networks is seen as the major obstacle to cdmaOne winning.

Observers point to the recent soccer competition held in South Korea and Japan to illustrate how roaming between CDMA based networks is more of a paper exercise rather than a reality. µ